Greg Sestero brings The Room & Big Shark to Screenland Armour

July 9, 2017 my life forever changed. I attended my first screening of The Room in Los Angeles, hosted by Tommy Wiseau. This is a movie that came out in 2003 that was written, directed, and starred Wiseau. It lives on in the pantheon like Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space and is considered to be the worst movie of all time.

At these screenings, people throw spoons and yell out lines as they happen. It’s an incredible theatrical experience and that’s what made me fall in love with it. To me, it is a perfect movie. Greg Sestero, who co-starred in The Room, wrote a book about the horrendous experience called The Disaster Artist. It was adapted into an Academy Award nominated movie in 2017, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen. Sestero also narrates the audiobook, which I recommend, as he is able to do a perfect Tommy Wiseau impression. Wiseau claims to be an “all-American guy” from New Orleans, but has a very thick Eastern European accent.

He has embraced The Room’s cult status and now claims it was always meant to be a dark comedy. This is clearly not the case. Wiseau paid to have the movie play in theaters for two weeks so it could qualify for The Academy Awards. Greg and Tommy worked together again in the Sestero penned, Best F(r)iends Part 1 and Part 2 in 2017 and 2018. They are teamed together again for Wiseau’s long awaited filmmaking follow up to The Room in Big Shark.

Sestero will be at Screenland Armour July 25th for Q&A screenings of The Room and Big Shark. It’s part of a tour he has on and we got the chance to catch up with him before he took off for his European dates.

The Pitch: The last time I saw you was at the Screenland Armour. You were here with The Room and your movie, Miracle Valley.

Greg Sestero: That’s right, yep.

I really, really liked that movie and I know people can watch it on Tubi now, they should. You’re working on another feature now that you also wrote and directed. Can you tell us anything about that?

Yeah, so Miracle Valley actually just got released on a special edition Blu-ray yesterday, which is awesome, and it’s on Amazon Prime and Tubi. It was such a fun screening at the Armour Theater. I feel like the Kansas City audience really ate it up and really got it. Now, I’m going to be working on Forbidden Sky, which is an alien abduction movie, and on July 25th we’re going to be showing a special teaser for it as well at the Screenland when I’m there.

Oh hell yeah. So you’re already done shooting?

We’ve got some footage, but we’re going to talk about it and surprise the crowd.

So what was it like working with Tommy again as a director on Big Shark? I know you guys had worked together again after The Room on Best F(r)iends, but you wrote that and it was directed by someone else. What was it like working with Tommy Wiseau in the director’s seat again?

Yeah, he’s all encompassing. I mean, really, every day is a surprise, it’s an adventure, and it shows up on screen. I worked really hard to get the Kansas City premiere to happen. I told Tommy how great the Screenland Armour Theatre is, and how great the audience is. So it’ll be the Kansas City premiere. I think it’ll be a really good time. The movie plays well with the crowd.

Now, did Tommy shoot the trailer before the movie came out?

We did a concept trailer a couple years ago and then it eventually evolved into the film that you’re going to see. And what’s cool about this is the version that’s going to be shown for the premiere on July 25th—It’s a totally different version. It hasn’t been shown yet, so it’s got the Tommy Wiseau special effect in there.

Oh hell, yeah, that’s exciting. I can’t wait. Why won’t Tommy come to Kansas City?

He doesn’t travel as much nowadays. It’s usually just a few cities, but I’ve definitely told him the spirit’s there. Hopefully someday. I just did a few cities with him, but I definitely told him the spirits there. Hopefully someday I’ll wrangle him out. We’ll come play football in Kansas City because it is a pretty great football city.

Yeah, people kinda like football here. So how did Big Shark present itself to you. Did Tommy come to you with the concept?

So we made Best F(r)iends and Tommy loved that experience. Lionsgate picked it up and released it. And then he came to me and was like, “We have to do another movie.” So he um had a couple great ideas for movies, but Big Shark was the one he wanted to make next.

I know in the past he had kind of talked about how he just wanted to be an actor. He really didn’t want to write or direct again. Did he get the bug to make another movie? What made him want to direct again after The Room?

I think it was a good break. And then, like I said, we made Best F(r)iends, which was, just a crazy experience. We filmed all over the place. And then I think, we were in London, and he’s like, “We have to do a movie called Big Shark.”

He was right and I’m so glad you did. So what made you want to direct your own feature?

Writing Best F(r)iends, I learned a lot. And then, when I was writing Miracle Valley, I thought this is the perfect movie to direct. I’m living on the ranch, we’re going to be filming, I’ve visualized every shot. I thought, if there’s a time to do the writer, director, actor, producer thing, this is the movie to do it. I love horror movies as well. So it was definitely a fun challenge to take it all on.

Yeah, there were some pretty cool death scenes in Miracle Valley. Those looked really fun. You can tell, you’re a fan of horror.

We got a chance to do practical effects, which is my favorite. So I was really stoked that it played out that way, and also Miracle Valley with a crowd, it was so much fun to see the reactions to it. I’m a big, big supporter of practical effects.

Now you’re writing and directing your own stuff now, so I guess you probably don’t, but do you ever feel pigeonholed by The Room? Do you ever feel like it prevented you from other opportunities in the entertainment industry?

No, because at the time when I did The Room no one knew who I was. I had made a movie called Retro Puppet Master, which I enjoyed that, but, The Room was really what gave me a shot. It introduced me to a lot of great people and without that, you don’t have a chance to do anything. You got to be in something that people see. So, obviously writing the book was my big contribution and that got turned into an Oscar nominated film and introduced me to a lot of artists like Bob Odenkirk, Seth Rogen, and James Franco. So, yeah, give me a chance to do what I love to do, and that’s all you can really ask for.

Yeah, absolutely. And I really love seeing you pop up in Mike Flanagan’s Netflix show The Haunting of Bly Manor. What was it like working with him?

Yeah, that was another one. I would have never got a chance to meet Mike Flanagan. He’s a he’s a big supporter of The Room and he loved The Disaster Artist book, so getting to work with him was amazing. We’ve kept in touch and hopefully working together again soon. The Room is something you would see and you wouldn’t know how to take that as an actor on your resume, but oddly enough, it really has brought me to a lot of cool places.

Do you have any plans to work with Tommy again in the future?

Yeah, we got a few surprises, hopefully. And you know alien movie, shark movies, and who knows what’s next.

Do you have any places you like to go in Kansas City when you’re here?

Adam from Screenland introduced me to Kansas City barbecue, which is the best of the best, and just hanging out in the city. I’d love to check out the football stadium. I’m definitely a Chiefs fan. They’re my second favorite team, so just to get a chance to hang a little bit more in town would be fun.

You can find more information on The Room and Big Shark screenings at Screenland Armour Theatre on July 25 at the links attached.